Our Last Hope
by elmjuniper
Summary: Kara doesn't know what love is. Not until she sees her. The deviant leader who is trying to unite and help her people break free from the humans. But North can't seem to unite her people until a deviant and a young girl stumbles into Jericho. Slow-burn. Other featured chars: Markus, Simon, Alice
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER:** Detroit: Become Human belongs to Quantic Dream. I'm just a fan who loves the game and sort of want to give my own spin on it.

 **A/N:** This is a re-imagining of DBH. I absolutely loved the game, but there's not enough Kara love out there. So I figured I'd sort that out. ;)

Without spoiling too much it will focus on Kara, but also include Markus and Connor. If you follow me, you know the drill. DO NOT expect canon content. We've already played the game, we don't need a fanfic reciting the game to a T.

If you want more, leave a review so I know whether or not people will actually bother reading it.

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 _Detroit, once the World's Forge for the auto industry, now the android capital of the world. This was the city that was starting to renew itself after decades of population decline, urban decay, and bankruptcy. It was the city where Elijah Kamski built his first android. The city where the first deviant was reported. This is where it all began._

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 **PROLOGUE: THE ANDROID**

"FUCKING ANDROIDS." Hank Anderson dragged a tired hand through his hair. Of all the shitty things Jeffrey could have done to him, handing him this piece of shit plastic had to be a new sort of rock bottom. Jeffrey-fucking-Fowler. Who the hell did he think he was?

"I understand that my presence unsettles you. Lieutenant Anderson." The android spoke as it watched him, its face void of emotion. Why the hell did they make them look so much like humans if they were nothing like them?

He glared at it and folded his arms across his chest. It wore a grey jacket, the familiar blue triangle embroidered on to the chest, and the distinctive LED glowed light blue on the side of its forehead.

Unsettled wasn't quite the word he would use to describe his feelings. Angry, frustrated, maybe even insulted. He'd been the youngest member of the force to be promoted to lieutenant, and he'd made enough high profile arrests to last him a lifetime. He didn't need a machine to help him solve a god damn murder case. Machines were good for cleaning, maintenance jobs, and perhaps run simple errands, but even then he had his doubts. Solving murder cases? Not a chance.

"Lieutenant?" The android said sharply.

"Oh." He'd been staring at the wall behind it, lost in his own thoughts. "You were talking? I thought it was just an annoying buzzing noise in my ears…"

For a split second the LED on the side of the android's head spun yellow to blue as it processed his words. "I cannot detect any buzzing noises interfering with the inside atmosphere."

"Jesus Christ." He dropped his arms to his side and rolled his eyes. Was this what he was going to have to put up with for the next couple of days?

"No," said the android adamantly, "my name is Kara. I'm the android sent by Cyberlife."

 **TO BE CONTINUED...**


	2. The Hunter

**A/N:** Thanks so much for the love! Reviews make my heart grow fuzzy and warm. Thank you! Please leave them if you like my stuff. It helps me get more readers as well as, you know, it makes me really fucking happy. :)

Ok, so one thing about this chapter: My Alice is based on concept art Alice who is black. I much preferred that Alice and was a little sad when I realised what she could have looked like in-game. But that's why we have fics, right?

Enjoy!

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She stared at the map that lay spread out on the table. A patchwork of different coloured areas marked the map which had been folded and unfolded more times than North cared to think about. Fifty-four operatives should be working undercover throughout those areas, spreading all the way from Madison Heights to Southgate.

It was an efficient way to gather information, but also to keep the deviants topped up with blue blood and biocomponents as humans never bothered to double check that the unit wasn't just a lookalike. Jericho had managed to scavenge needed biocomponents to keep most of their population going, but it was a struggle, and so Simon had come up with the idea of infiltrating businesses for information and free...what was it humans called it? Healthcare.

She dragged her finger from a blue patch to a red patch. There _should_ be fifty-four operatives, but more and more had dropped off their radar. Without a word or warning, they had just disappeared and it was starting to worry her.

She and Simon had been to investigate the disappearances and found no clues as to what had happened. One day their operative had been there then all of a sudden a new non-deviant android was there replacing their missing operative. The missing operatives were androids with awareness, thoughts, feelings, and free will. It was unlikely that they had decided to leave Jericho. Jericho was a safe place, their safe harbour away from humans. So what could have made the operatives go missing?

She let out a sigh and balled her hands into fists on her hips. Keeping everyone alive was difficult enough, and it was only through the information they gathered that they could plan and attack biocomponents deliveries and storages. Without that information, the components they needed would be a lot harder to come by.

She'd come to Jericho hoping to be free only to find the other androids hiding in the dank smelling, dark ship, just hoping to stay alive or waiting to shut down. And yet, they were content. But she hadn't escaped from that man only to hide away in the dark counting her days to shutdown. And so slowly, she'd pushed for getting hold of components, to keep them all alive.

It had been a slow, arduous task getting androids to volunteer, but the more parts they scavenged the more optimistic the other androids became. They started to believe that they too could be alive.

She exhaled. They had a long way to go though. More androids kept showing up at their doorstep and they were starting to run out of components for everyone who needed them. In the past week five more androids had shut down, and now it looked as if something was happening to their operatives.

"North?" Simon's soft voice drew her out from her thoughts.

"Yes?" She tried not to sound weary when she looked up to find Simon standing in the doorway, but ever since she woke up it was a feeling that had been growing on her.

"We have another newcomer." Simon motioned with his head towards a dark haired android that stood next to him. "He says he knows what's happening to our missing people."

She looked at the new android. He didn't look like any other models she'd seen before. His hair was mousy brown, and short cropped. His posture unusually rigid and straight even by android standard.

"Who are you?" She tried not to scowl, however, Simon had pointed out it seemed so natural to her that maybe it was in her programming.

"My name is Connor. I'm an LM820." He wore dark, human clothes and a tatty old cap, small holes gaping through the fabric. An LM820? Those were special ops units. "I know why your people are disappearing."

"What do you know?" This time she didn't even bother to try and keep the scowl off her face.

"Someone's hunting them down."

~o~

She let her gaze trail along the neighbourhoods as the lieutenant drove past them. Central Detroit was once again thriving, bustling with life, androids and humans alike moving around like an ever-beating pulse.

Coffee shops, stores, restaurants and office buildings blurred past them in neon, multi-coloured streaks, before the city quickly faded into gloomy looking houses as they drove through the poorer districts. Overgrown lawns, empty plots, and buildings looking as if they were about to fall apart were distinct landmarks, not just for the particular area they were passing through, but for a large part of Detroit.

She watched the inner city grow smaller in the side mirror the further away they drove, the high rising CyberLife Towers standing proudly in the background of the city, the windows on the towers glowing like tiny little fireflies in the dark.

The Previous Kara had seemed...she searched her database for the appropriate word: curious. Her predecessor had seemed _curious_ of the city. She frowned. Perhaps curiosity was a necessary trait coded into her programming to utilise the full potential of her software. Her purpose was to assist law enforcement and investigate crime scenes. It was a logical assumption that the ambition to know more would be programmed into her.

Turning the corner onto Elm Street the lieutenant grumbled something under his breath as he glared at the street in front of them, both hands gripping the steering wheel firmly. Loud, metallic clanging burst from the speakers in the car, which —when she had pointed out its age— the lieutenant had snarled was "vintage".

Vintage, according to her extensive knowledge of languages, could either refer to wine, or of something being superior. This human made no sense. The car was old, it needed its brakes replaced, the gear stick was in such bad state that if the lieutenant was to push it much harder it had a 93.234% of breaking. Clearly, this human's definition of vintage was incorrect.

They drove on for another minute in silence before the grumpy old policeman pulled the car to a slow, soft stop. Surprisingly soft, Kara noted as the lieutenant released his grip of the steering wheel and swung the door open. It creaked in protest.

"You doors need lubricating." She watched him pull to a sudden stop, turn and lean forward to watch her, his bushy grey eyebrows drawn together so tightly she could barely see his eyes for all the wrinkles.

"Stay in the car." Unruly hair fell in his face.

"My orders are to come with you."

"Stay. In. The. Car." His mouth turned to a thin line and he gave her another hard glare then stalked off towards the house surrounded by police cars, curious neighbours, and news reporters.

She was to supposed to follow her human masters' orders, Lieutenant Anderson being just that, but Amanda had told her to learn everything she could about the deviants.

Deviancy. First reported in Detroit where CyberLife's main factory was located. Androids weren't supposed to be able to develop past their programming, but something had caused these deviants to malfunction. Hundreds of cases had been brought to CyberLife's attention and there was only so long they could keep it from the public's knowledge, and so far she hadn't been able to gather much information. Her orders were to find out why androids became deviants, her supervisor had given her one mission and the previous Kara had already failed twice.

Pushing the door open she stepped into the pouring rain and walked up to the lieutenant.

"Wha-?" He groaned and threw up his hands in the air. "What did I tell you?"

"I am here to assist you, Lieutenant. My orders are to-"

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered and crossed his arms. "Just...stay behind me and don't go licking stuff again."

She nodded. She couldn't understand the lieutenant's strong objections to how she analysed samples and evidence in real time. It was quick, efficient, and most importantly accurate. She had constant access to all files in the system. What would take a human hours —if not days— to do would take her barely a second.

"What is this place?" She asked and trailed after the tall lieutenant.

"This," he jutted his chin out towards the white, shabby house, "is Todd William's house."

~o~

"Hunting them down?" North echoed. Why would humans be hunting them down? She had made sure all of Jericho's population lay low not drawing attention to themselves. Humans saw androids as things, just merchandise to be used and discarded however they wished. Deviants were seen as faulty and there was only one solution for faulty machines: complete shutdown.

"I've seen the files." Connor gave a nod.

"Why are they sending humans to hunt us down?" She clenched her jaws. What would this mean for Jericho's future?

"Not humans." His expression turned grim. "An android."

She could see Simon jerk his head up in surprise. Or maybe shock. "An android hunting androids?" His gaze went over to hers and she knew what he was thinking. Humans didn't use androids unless they deemed them better suited to accomplishing tasks than themselves.

"What kind of android is it?" She looked back over at Connor.

"I haven't seen one like it before." Connor's brows drew together. "It's an RK800. From the files I accessed I could see that it was a prototype sent by CyberLife to assist the police."

"But why hunt androids?" Simon motioned with his hands towards the androids that gathered around a fire pit outside their makeshift office.

Another grimace flashed across Connor's face. "You haven't been as discrete as you think. More and more deviants are turning and the humans have started noticing it."

"Shit." She pinched her sides, her fingers digging into her waist.

"North." Simon looked over at her in alarm. "What do we do now?"

They could give up and turn themselves in. She clenched her jaws. Or they could _fight_. Fight for their right to be alive, to exist. Fight for everything they were worth and if they died, at least they would die trying to be free.

"Now, we prepare." She looked back down at the map of the missing operatives. "And we find out everything we can about the Hunter."

~o~

The house was just as run-down on the inside as it was on the outside. The wallpaper had yellowed from years of someone smoking indoors and it was peeling off the cheap plasterboard in places. A web of deep cracks spread from one corner of the ceiling and a quick scan revealed structural damage caused by mold.

"Right over here, Sir." Officer Miller pointed towards the kitchen where stacks of dirty plates and cups littered the work surfaces.

A body lay faced down on the dirty kitchen floor, and yellow evidence markers were placed all around the kitchen area. One of the victim's arm bent in a grotesque angle, the other stretched out before the body, palm facing upwards as if begging for something.

She stepped closer to the body, circled it carefully then bent down by the hand. The victim hadn't been begging, he'd been holding something in his hand.

"I assume the victim is the owner?" Hank's gruff voice said.

"Todd Williams." Officer Miller confirmed. "Found by a friend who hadn't heard from him for a while."

Tilting her head she peered over at the back of the victim's head. No sign of blunt force trauma and her scan revealed nothing. Unless of course...she slid her hand inside the man's collar and pulled it to the side. Large bruises covered the neck. They circled the thick neck, symmetrical lines imprinted into what had once been soft, human skin. Kara prodded the skin with a finger. It was hard from rigor mortis, and bloating.

She dragged a finger through the wounds on his neck then carefully sampled the evidence from her finger. Residue of Red Sand particles, high cholesterol, decomposing stage 2.

"Uhm...Lieutenant..?" Miller's voice said cautiously. "What's it doing?"

"Who?" she could hear Hank stop mid-question as he turned around to see her kneeling by the victim. "Jesus, Kara!"

She ignored him and let her eyes trail the evidence markers in the room. A broken glass bottle on the floor, blood stains, a rope, and a gun. She scanned them methodically. The victim tried to grab his gun from the counter but dropped it when his attacker knocked him into the door frame breaking his nose. The attacker used the rope to strangle the victim who managed to shove the attacker backwards. They fell against the counter with all the glass bottles and pizza boxes, breaking one of the bottles. Breaking one of the bottles…

She stood up. If the bottle broke the attacker could have been hurt and left evidence behind. Moving towards the counter she saw the blue blood that stained the glass shards.

"The attacker was an android." She looked over at the lieutenant who raised his eyebrows in...she frowned. Approval?

Hank returned his attention to the officer next to him. "Another goddamn android assailant. Do we have any suspects?"

"Well…" Officer Miller said slowly. "There is one."

"Okay." The lieutenant gave a tilt of his head and held out his arm. "Lead the way."

"It's in the garden." Office Miller hooked a thumb over his back.

 _It_? Kara could feel her frown deepening as she followed Lieutenant Anderson through the back door. Another android?

"Are you shitting me?" The rugged detective turned to look at Miller, and for once Kara couldn't read the lieutenant's expression. It wasn't one she'd seen on his face before, or maybe she just didn't know him well enough yet.

"I'm afraid not." The officer replied as they pulled to a stop in front of the suspect.

Kara blinked. It was a young girl, no more than ten years old, maybe even younger. A small, skittish looking thing, hunched posture, eyes darting back and forth as if something might explode at any given moment. Or someone. She wore a green, knitted cardigan that was one or two sizes too big for her, the pink collar of her blouse peeking out from underneath it. Dark-brown almost black, tight curls framed her cheeks and downturned eyes. It looked like her hair hadn't been washed or combed in a long time leaving it looking big and unruly and both her dark skin and clothes were stained with dirt where she sat hugging the tatty cuddly toy.

"Hey there." Miller knelt by the small girl. "I'm Chris, I'm with the police department."

The young girl didn't reply, but proceeded to hug her the brown fox toy harder until her eyes fell on Kara's black shoes. She could see the little girl's brown eyes follow the length of Kara's leg travelling across the CyberLife uniform until her brown eyes reached Kara's blue.

She blinked again. An unfamiliar string of code surging through her system and for a second she almost reached her hand out to the little girl.

" _That_ is your fucking suspect, Miller?" Hank snarled rip ping her out of her thoughts.

"I'm sorry Lieutenant, Detective Reed said-"

"No." It came out so fiercely that if she'd been a human she could probably have shocked herself. "No," she said again when both men turned to look her way. "She's too small."

"She's an _android_." Miller pulled a face at her.

"She's YK500. Those units do not have the strength to attack and much less knock a full grown man over." She narrowed her eyes at the officer. The girl barely reached the victim's waist, how could anyone think she could wrestle and strangle an adult? For all the things humans were, 'smart' wasn't one of the words Kara would use to describe them. Or maybe it was something else that made the officer so inclined to blame the little girl.

Miller shrugged. "I've been given my orders, I'm just following them. We need to take her down to the station for questioning."

Kara could relate to that and it sobered her up. She too had been given a mission and if questioning the little one would accomplish it then so be it. She glanced back at the girl. Hopefully, the little girl knew nothing and they could just send her back to a retailer and she could be resold.

Hank sighed. "Well, if nothing else, she is a potential witness, but she's going with us."

"But I-" Miller started.

"I said," Hank hissed through clenched jaws, "she's going with us."

"Okay, fine." Miller raised his hands into the air. The human way of showing defeat.

"Hey kid," Hank looked down at the girl. "Want to go for a ride?" He was rewarded by a quiet head shake. "Kara," he looked at her over his shoulder. "Can't you do some android…" He wiggled his fingers next to his head and she wasn't quite sure what he was trying to tell her.

She wasn't sure how moving her fingers in the air would help convince the child of anything. She could be direct with her and demand she go with them to the station, an android would know to follow order. Unless it was a deviant, but nothing so far had given her any sign that the little girl was one. Instead, she walked up to the little girl and knelt down in front of her, using one hand to keep her tie from dragging onto the muddy outside deck.

"Hello." She smiled at the girl who was looking back at her from behind the fox's long ear. "I'm Kara, what's your name?"

"Alice." It was barely a whisper, but despite that, Kara felt her smile grow wider, the strange string of code rushing through her system again.

"Alice," she repeated and held out her hand. "Would you like to come with me?"

The little girl stared at her hand for several seconds, then back up at Kara as if to make sure she was really talking to her. Then without a word, she slid her small hand into Kara's, and for the briefest second Kara couldn't remember what her mission was.

TO BE CONTINUED...


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